This poster reports on a study attempting to distinguish between the influences of domain-specific and domain-general developmental mechanisms in subjects with Williams Syndrome (a genetic defect resulting in mental retardation). Subjects included 10 monolingual French-speaking subjects (ages 9-21) with Williams syndrome and 10 monolingual…

The aim of this paper is to: (1) discuss the characteristics of seven bilevel factor models; and (2) arrive at a list of empirically based recommendations for selecting appropriate bilevel factor models, the assumptions underlying these decisions, and the consequences for interpretation of the Spearman case. The five models considered in the…

One of the most pernicious effects of stress is its effect on the ability of children and youths to function in the classroom. This study examined the factor structure of the Coping Resources Inventory for Educational Enhancement (CRISEE), an instrument designed to measure the coping resources and stressor load of children and youth. Participants…

Factor analysis of the instrument used to evaluate student perceptions of an educational interactive video program has determined that seven constructs were being measured. All of these constructs, however, were not consistently measuring the same things. In fact, the variables on which the factors loaded changed for three of the factors from…

This essay explores what is known and what remains to be learned about the information value of performance items when they are used in large scale assessment. Within the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), there is substantial interest in answering these questions as issues of national assessment are considered for…

A large state agency had been experiencing a variety of changes. The new head of the agency approached communication researchers about doing analyses of the effectiveness of communication in the agency. The researchers conducted two studies: a qualitative one to identify organizational and organizational communication themes, and a quantitative…

This study examined the effect of classroom climate on the mathematics achievement of fourth-grade students in Tennessee public schools. The investigation used data obtained from 875 fourth-grade students enrolled in 42 classes in 13 public schools. In the first phase of the inquiry, four class-climate factors were identified by exploratory factor…

A limitation of the principal components method is its scale dependence. This note shows that the method is scale invariant if the normalization is modified in an obvious way. Then the effect of a change in units is as transparent as in linear regression, and principal components can be used without apology. Most researchers who use multivariate…

A population data set was randomly generated from which a random sample was drawn. This sample was randomly divided into two data sets, one of which was used to generate parameter estimates, which were then used in the second data set for cross-validation purposes. The best variable subset models were compared between the two data sets on the…

A study was conducted in order to investigate the factor structure of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Aptitude Test, which now includes an analytical module. Comparison of the factor structures of the Aptitude Test before and after modification suggested that the factor structure of the verbal and quantitative sections of the test has been…

To investigate the dependence of mathematics achievement and attitudes on each other and other factors, achievement test scores and ratings of 2,368 13-year-old students who participated in the 1977-78 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) were analyzed. Achievement was significantly associated with attitudes, sex, ethnicity, father's…

Although there are over 100 different measures of various aspects of sex role activities, little work has been done to measure male sex role stereotypy or attitudes. Doyle and Moore (1978) factored five scales out of a large pool of items administered to several different groups. To clarify and broaden Doyle and Moore's work, and to develop a…

The three primary purposes of this investigation were: (1) to apply confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to responses from three instruments--Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), Comrey Personality Scales (CPS), and Australian Sex-Role Scale (ASRS)--designed to measure masculinity (M) and femininity (F); (2) to determine the correlation between M and F on…

In 1978 the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) was developed to measure the degree of practitioner support of the principles of the collaborative teaching-learning mode for teaching adults. Although the original study with a field test group of 57 produced a valid and reliable 44-item summated rating scale, the stability of the normative…

Three hundred twelve Kentucky trade and industrial juniors' mental maturity was compared to data supplied with the California Mental Maturity Test. Aspects of vocational maturity significantly related to mental maturity measures for the group, and factors of mental maturity significantly related to aspects of their vocational maturity were also…